


Christmas with the Galán-Grants

by AmbientMagic



Category: The Posterchildren - Kitty Burroughs
Genre: Christmas Fluff, F/F, Gen, M/M, TPC Secret Santa
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 04:07:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,363
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5613388
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AmbientMagic/pseuds/AmbientMagic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Jack had thought he was ready for Christmas.  What Roz had described--Christmas Midnight Mass with her Mama’s family, a tree, presents, and stockings--had seemed similar to what he remembered.  </p><p>He should have known better.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Christmas with the Galán-Grants

**Author's Note:**

> A Secret Santa gift for the TPC SS Exchange, written for the prompt “Jack, Roz and their family celebrating holidays, I can only imagine what a loud and loving affair that must be :D” for tedkordisanasshole. (Full disclosure, your original SS had to bow out, so you’re stuck with me.)

Jack had thought he was ready for Christmas.  What Roz had described--Christmas Midnight Mass with her Mama’s family, a tree, presents, and stockings--had seemed similar to what he remembered.  

He should have known better.

Christmas began the day after Thanksgiving.  Well, that wasn’t quite true either.  Roz and her cousins and uncles (on Roxy’s side, and wasn’t Texas an  _ experience  _ in and of itself) started planning for Christmas  _ directly after Thanksgiving dinner.   _ Apparently thankfulness was trumped by going to the stores to fight people over cut-rate scarves and DVDs, or so it seemed to Jack as Roz’s cousins started ripping through different store ads, circling what they wanted to get for their family members and making a “plan of attack.”  It reminded Jack somewhat uncomfortably of attack plans he himself had made, back when--Before.  

Sofia seemed to be one of the few immune to the “Black Friday” madness, and she ushered Jack into his designated armchair (within Roz’s range as long as she was in the living room or kitchen) and pulled up a folding chair next to him.  

“Don’t worry so much about them,” she advised.  “Rosario likes getting up before dawn and going to the mall to shop, but she won’t this year.  She’s giving her list to her Uncle Roger, so he’ll pick up anything she might want to get.  No one’s gonna make you go into that madhouse.”  Sofia shuddered.  “God knows  _ I _ never want to.  She just likes the planning part.”    

Roz came bouncing in a few minutes later, eyes bright and color high, and plopped down on the arm of Jack’s chair.  “Hey, Mama, Abuelito.  I know we can’t go Black Friday shopping this year, so I left my list with Uncle Roger.”  She waved over her shoulder at the tall, heavyset man currently giving Jack the stinkeye for being so close to his niece.  Jack shuffled to the other side of his chair.  “I already gave him the money I’d saved up, so I’m all good to go!”  She grinned at Jack.  

“You really like doing this crazy Black Friday thing, don’t you?”  Jack asked her quietly, as Sofia went to reclaim Roxy’s attention with a dramatic kiss under the just-hung mistletoe.  

She relaxed into a smile and slung her arm affectionately around Jack.  “Yeah, but I wouldn’t make you go, Abuelito.  Mama’s right, it would be terrible on you, even if I was right there next to you.”

“I could still try to--”

“Nah,” Roz interrupted.  “You don’t need to.  We’re both partners, ‘member?  You watch my back, I watch yours.  Plus, one of the gifts on that list is for you, so you couldn’t go anyway even if you did want to.”  She ruffled his unruly curls.  “How about instead we get up early tomorrow and go for a run?”

Jack smiled at her, trying ineffectively to adjust his hair.  “Sounds good to me, Weena.”

\---------------

With all that kerfuffle right after Thanksgiving, Jack had become a lot more wary of Christmas here in the future.  But so far, this was… nice.  

The roadtrip to California to see Sofia’s side of the family was  _ much  _ nicer than the flight to Texas.  Roxy drove, Roz yelled “shotgun” for some reason and hopped in the front seat (then spent most of the ride turned around and explaining various Future Things to Jack), which left Sofia, Jack, and Libby in the backseat.  Libby sat in the middle, alternately hugging and scolding Mr. Bear, while Sofia tapped away on a small tablet.  

Roxy had tried to stop her from bringing it, but Sofia had smiled her normal brilliant smile.  “You know that work never stops for me,” she said wryly.  “The young’ns’ll cause trouble whether I’m there to keep an eye open or not, so I better be ready just in case.”

Jack still didn’t know what it was Sofia did on that thing, but when he glanced over from his book he was flipping through (between staring avidly out the window and listening to Rosario) it looked an awful lot like Sofia was doing a crossword.  

Jack turned back to his book, an old Western that Roxy had lent him.  He wasn’t sure if it was his favorite but, well, they’d had Westerns back Before, too.  It was comforting.  All the brightly wrapped presents were in the back of the truck.  Jack had expected to use plain brown paper and twine, but he had to admit the green and red was a lot more festive.

Pleasant as the car trip was, Jack was relieved when they arrived at Sofia’s mother’s house.  He hopped out of the truck gladly and stretched.  The house was festooned with lights--white bulbs around the roof, colored lights in the trees, blinking ones in the bushes.  There were even reindeer made totally out of lights grazing on the lawn.  As they pulled up, one of them looked up from grazing and turned toward the truck.  

“Tío Manuel makes them every year,” Rosario informed Jack. “He’s Mama’s brother.”

“Tío means uncle,” Libby added helpfully.  

“Thank you for translating,” Jack told Libby gravely.  Then he turned to the rest of the family.  “What should I call everyone?  Tío?  Tía?  It seems a little....”

Roxy shrugged.  “I don’t worry about family titles, just try to keep the first names straight.  If I can’t guess at a name, I just call ‘em cousin and get it mostly right.  It’s been twenty years we’ve been together, and I still don’t know how many cousins Sofia has, there’s so many.  Don’t worry about it too much.  They’ll help you out.”

With that helpful bit of advice, the Galán-Grants gathered luggage and presents and trooped inside.

\------------

Thinking back, Jack doesn’t actually remember the first couple of hours he spent at the Galán household.  From the instant he walked in the door, carrying a stack of presents behind Roz, he was swept up into the chaos.  The presents were tugged away and in-laws went to place them under the tree, as Jack was passed from one family member to the other--the only one who stuck out at first was Abuelo José, because Libby took a moment to explain to him that he was  _ abuelo,  _ not  _ abuelito _ , so don’t worry, Jack.  

Jack hadn’t been worried about losing his title of Abuelito, but he had to admit that Libby’s tiny hand in his made meeting so many Galáns much more reassuring.  

He met Tío Manuel, who had made the creatures of light out on the lawn, and Tía Estefania, who looked oddly familiar.  He stood there a moment, trying to place her, before he saw the behemoth that was her husband (Tío Sal, supplied Roz from the tornado) and started edging away.  He could place them now.

Jack ducked into another room, looking for Rosario.  She’d gotten misplaced somehow; he could tell by the uneasy look on Tío Raymond’s (married to Tío Tomas) face that mirrored his own.  As he moved away from Estefania and Sal, he saw a flash of blonde hair lighter even than his own, but when he turned around to see, it was gone.  

Luckily, Rosario was just in the next room, the kitchen, and she was looking around for him too.  “Abuelito!  Jack,” she clarified, when Jose turned around.  “There you are.  Help me make popcorn strings for the tree?”  She grabbed his wrist, grounding him with one warm calloused hand, and led him to the table, where they settled themselves with Abuela and started stringing popcorn garlands.  

The motions, smooth and familiar, let Jack concentrate on observing the chaos around them without being sucked into it.  Everywhere, he saw smiles, laughter, hugs and shoulder clasps and a thousand different ways of loving each other.  Roxy and Sofia kissed under the mistletoe.  Tomas and Raymond embraced in another corner, seemingly for no reason at all except that they loved each other.

Jack suddenly laughed.  Even with Roz nullifying his powers, there was something infectious about all this goodwill.

“What is it, Abuelito?”  Roz asked.

Jack shook his head and kept smiling.  “I guess Christmas isn’t so very different here in the future after all.”

  
  



End file.
